The Story of our Scars
by IrishDarlin28
Summary: Ellie was just a simple waitress with scarred past. Yeah, she had her survivalist talents her father had taught her. It never came in handy... Until now. In the apocalypse she is in her element. Along with another certain redneck. Although she never had love in the past will she now? Now that the world has gone to shit?
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first story guys, so please tell me if you have any problems with it!**

Ellie—

I looked at my reflection in the water. I had on a black tank top and a black sports bra under it. Then I had a grey flannel over that. You couldn't see all of the scars my uncle gave me with his knife, my tattoos, or my diamond belly button ring. Then after you followed the scars over my hips you would find jean shorts and even below that was black shin high combat boots.

I let my eyes wander over my face next.

The glass shard incident caused there to be a thin pink scar cutting over the bridge of my nose and down my left cheek. My hazel eyes that were once bright were a little duller and my lips pinkish. My light brown hair was in a loose fishtail braid which meant most of the hair near my face was falling out.

A stick cracked to the left of me. My head snapped to the side and my left hand immediately took ahold my bow handle.

A squirrel scurried across the ground.

As quick as lightning, I loaded an arrow and shot the little creature through the eye. Another thing to add to my belt of fifteen I already had.

"Jason better be glad I'm feeding his sorry ass group…" I grumbled to myself.

Jason was supposedly the leader of his little group. He found me surrounded by biters one day and shut them all down. Apparently I owed him some kind of debt so I hunt for the group, feed them all. And I get little to none recognition for it.

Then I traveled along creek bed back to camp.

"This is me ringing the dinner bell," I deadpanned throwing Jenna, our classic camp bitch, the string of sixteen squirrel.

"Ewe!" she squealed holding them out as far in front of her as I could. Shelly rolled her eyes and snatched them from her.

Shelly was the one I got along with most. She knows how to gut a squirrel, shoot a gun, and she's not all girly about it.

In another time, Shelly was a plucky, red head mechanic working in an Atlanta garage. She wore black rimmed glasses and was short, but not too short. She may sound ugly but she was the complete opposite. She was beautiful and weird at the same time. Just like me, that's why we got along so well.

"Remember to give me those skins when you're done!" I called after her. She waved an okay and disappeared into the brush.

"We need someone to make a run into the city," Jason's voice said behind me. "Any volunteers?"

I stayed quiet. I just got back from a hunt, he could find someone else to do it for him. Walking away was the best for me right then.

"Ellie, you're going…"

I spun around and glared at him. "Why do I have to go? I just got done feeding us!"

"And we're grateful, but you're our fastest and our quietest. Plus, you've been there countless times! Can't you go just one more time? For the group?" he snapped. The look in his black eyes were threatening. As if to say if I say no, he'd make me sorry.

"Fine!" I exclaimed throwing my hands into the air. "But I'm taking Shelly with me!"

"Fine!" he growled and stomped off towards his tent.

Shelly poked her head through the brush. "I'm going with you?"

"Yes, yes you are." I walked up close to her. "Do you remember on the way here how you were asking me if I like this group?" She nodded. "Well, I didn't get to answer you…" I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I hate this group. Constantly, I'm being told what to do and Jason believes I owe him some damn debt for him saving my life when I have saved him countless times, hunted for the group, and going on all of these runs while he sits in his tent and drinks tequila. I'm leaving. Do you want to come with?"

She didn't even hesitate. "Of course I do."

"Good. Discreetly pack your things. When we leave, we leave for good."

She nodded and threw the squirrels at Jenna. The string ended up going into her shirt so we had a good laugh about that.

I packed my small bag of things that included clothes, a flashlight, batteries (AA, AAA, etc.), condoms (Just in case), birth control pills (also just in case), a canteen full of water, my mother's locket, a quarter roll of duct tape, extra arrows, and a few extra clips for the 9mm that Jason took from me.

There was a tap on the tree next to me. I looked up the see Shelly looking down at me.

"You ready for this?" she asked as I stood up next to her.

"Absolutely. Let's move."

We made our way to her big black truck. She drove of course because when she was off shift as a mechanic she was also a drag racer and could drive a car like it's nobody's business.

"So what the plan?" Shelly inquired glancing at me.

I snorted, very unattractively I might add. "You can't have a plan in this world. Because of the dead there are too many liabilities for a plan to work out the way you want it to."

Shelly shrugged. "Very reasonable. What do you want then?"

I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. "We're going to go into the city to this one convenience store I hid some supplies in. Then we head east to the coast, hijack a boat, and make towards the nearest island."

"Nice plan…"

"Not a plan. It's what I want."

We laughed.

Shelly parked the car a little ways away from the store.

All three sets of windows were broken through when we got there.

"There must have been a lot of biters to break through all those windows. Someone was most likely in here," I whispered to Shelly. There was a corpse on the ground by the cash register with a hole in its head. I crouched to examine the wound. "It's fresh. Someone was here not that long ago…"

"Or they're still here…" Shelly replied in a low voice.

I agreed and loaded my bow.

We quickly and silently made our way up the narrow stairwell. The door at the top was open. It was suspicious but I didn't think anything of it.

When we stepped through the door way and immediately froze.

There on that roof were four guys, an Asian, an African American, a cop, and a redneck. And they were all staring at us.

"Howdy there…" Shelly greeted calmly as she was slowly raising her gun.

"We just want to get our stuff and leave…" I said walking towards the pipe that held all of the things I was looking for.

"I wouldn't move, missy," the redneck said pointing his crossbow at me.

I rolled my eyes but didn't stop moving. "Uh, don't tell me what to do…"

Quickly I got to the pipe. I cursed loudly at what I found.

There were handcuffs attached to the middle of it and apparently someone yanked too hard revealing most of the supplies.

"What happened?" Shelly asked.

"Someone fucking found them!" I growled. I took out my brother's bowie knife from my waistband.

"Whoa!" the black guy said raising his gun. "Calm down!"

"Don't flatter yourself…" I grumbled annoyed shooting him a glare. I stabbed through the thin part of the pipe which was a little farther than a hand could reach opening it up. I spied down the new hole and saw that there were a few supplies he/she missed. I yanked them out. In all I had six water bottles, a belt full of throwing knives, and a huge pack of jerky.

"AH!" shouted Shelly behind me. I spun around bow ready. She was being attacked by a biter.

Just as I did with the squirrel, quick as lightning I shot an arrow in its eye.

"Whoa," breathed the Asian obviously impressed. I shrugged.

"What's your name?" the cop asked me slowly walking up to me, like I was a cornered animal or a victim from his past life as a cop.

"Why do you want to know?" I narrowed my eyes at him and white-knuckle gripped my bow.

"Because I believe we could work something out…" He was now an arms distance away from me.

"What is there to work out?" Shelly asked winded from her struggle. She hopped down next to me. "You let us go, no questions asked, and she won't put an arrow through your eye." She put the arrow I killed the biter with back in my quiver.

"I'm Rick Grimes."

I stayed silent staring at him. I didn't blink. I didn't move. You could tell that I was intimidating him.

"Ellie Stevenson. This is my friend Shelly Rudi"

"I'm Glenn," said the Asian. "That's T-Dog and Daryl Dixon has the crossbow."

"Are you apart of a group?" T-Dog asked stepping a bit closer.

"Were," Shelly answered lowering her gun. "Ellie was always made to do the dirty work, hunting, making runs. If she was running so was I."

I looked down at the ground beside the now shredded pipe. There was a severed hand with a pool of blood around it. There wasn't a lot of blood after that on the trail so I knew he must have used a tourniquet.

"Your buddy used a tourniquet." I stepped over and bent to examine the trail. "Would have been a bloodier trail if he didn't."

"You track?" Daryl asked huffing.

I looked up at him like he was an idiot. "Of course I do. Didn't you hear Shelly? I hunt. If I couldn't that would be hard to do, now wouldn't it…"

Daryl scoffed but didn't answer.

"I like her. Can we keep her?" T-Dog said with a chuckle.

"Now that we're best friends!" Shelly broke out into a fake smile. "Why don't we go watch Mean Girls and braid each other's hair?"

"What's a Mean Girls?" Daryl scratched the back of his neck impatiently.

"See?" I murmured to myself. "I'm not the only one who hasn't seen Mean Girls…"

"Why don't you come with us?" Rick asked breaking the silence. "You're good with a bow and you can track."

"Um, I just got out of a strenuous relationship with my group. I'm not emotionally ready to jump right back into one…" The sarcasm in my voice was evident.

"Our group is different," Glenn caught in. "We have another hunter so you wouldn't have to hunt all the time. And we have others, back at camp, with food, shelter. Plus, I usually make the runs so you wouldn't have to."

"We don't have a lot of resources, El. They think we're on a run so we only have what you packed in your backpack." Shelly was right. We wouldn't last a week with these rations.

I sat on the pipe and contemplated their offer.

They seemed nice enough. But I didn't know who the rest of their group were or how they acted. But I didn't think they were bad people if they live with these guys… We need the supplies and the support.

"If we come with you…" I said from the pipe. "I'm helping. Now c'mon. We need to find this guy before he bleeds out."

**There you go guys, the first installment. Hope you liked it! **


	2. Chapter 2

Daryl and I took the front of the pack, following the blood trail.

There was one biter but I shot it quickly to avoid a hassle. After retrieving my arrow, I got back to the front of the group. There were two already dead biters on the ground.

"Had enough in 'im to take down these two sumbitches," Daryl said. "One handed. Toughest asshole I ever met."

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is…" Rick put in.

What a delight he is…

"Merle!" called Daryl as we walked into a kitchen like area.

"We're not alone in here!" hissed Glenn. "Remember?"

"Screw that! He could be bleeding out! You said so yourself!" Daryl tried to look as threatening ad possible but I could see right through his tough guy phased.

He was scared. He must be related to Merle or something because you could tell Daryl cared a lot for him.

"What's that burned stuff?" Shelly asked. She bent to look at it closer. "Smells nasty."

"Skin," I supplied with a scrunch of my nose. It really did smell disgusting. "He cauterized the stump."

Daryl walked up beside me, adjusting the butt of his crossbow into his shoulder. "See? Told you he was tough. Nobody could kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith." Rick stepped up again. "He still lost a lot of blood."

"Yeah?" Daryl replied. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this deathtrap…"

The window on the fire escape was busted through.

"He left the building? Why in the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone, as far as he know, doing what he's gotta do. Surviving." Daryl was getting pissed. At everyone in fact, he had that tone in his voice.

"You call that surviving? Just wandering out of the streets, maybe passing out?" Glenn said.

"Glenn-"I tried to stop him but he went on.

"What are his odds up there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left ta rot by you sorry pricks! You couldn't kill 'im! Ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard…"

I locked eyes with Shelly and rolled them. She rolled back.

"What about a thousand dead bastards?" I piped up. If I was going to be here I wasn't going to just sit pretty and keep my mouth shut. "Different story, eh?"

"I'm going to go get 'im." Daryl turned to leave out the window where Merle left through.

"Daryl wait!" Rick exclaimed. He grabbed Daryl's arm and Daryl yanked away harshly.

"Get your hands off me!" he spat. Daryl jabbed a finger in Rick's chest. "You can't stop me!"

"Jump in," Shelly whispered to me. "You're good at calming down situations like this…"

"Since when?" I whispered back chuckling.

"Since Jamie got in that 'scuffle' with Samson." I snorted.

"I don't blame you," I said loudly catching everyone's attention. "He's family, I get that. Had some myself before the dead were snapping their jaws at us. He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around only if we all keep level heads."

"I could do that…" muttered Daryl.

"Only if we get those guns first," T-Dog said. "I'm not strolling the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions, okay?"

I sent him a smirk. "I'm sure we can do something about that. Now here's what I want…"

"No plan?" Shelly asked with the same smirk.

"No plan…" I motioned for everyone to gather round. "Gather round children. Mamas not just the best at shooting arrows…"

Meanwhile at Jason's camp…

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Darren said walking up to Jason with two plates stewed up squirrel.

"They should…" Jason replied. He took a plate from Darren and motioned for him to sit down. "I have a feeling they aren't going to be back. Did you see the load they were carrying? It looked like they were leaving for good."

"Do we care?"

"Ellie was a hunting fiend. Before we had her we were eating morsels. So that's done with. Shelly was good with cars and a rifle. And we don't have any other mechanics here."

"Ellie was damn good looking too. Too bad she left." They clinked their glasses together.

"Will you share?"

The men shared a devious look.

Ellie-

"What did you do before this?" Daryl asked me as the group looked at me in shock.

"I was a waitress. Why?"

They looked around the room at each other.

"Alright then, let's get moving," Shelly said standing up.

Daryl, Glen, and I moved into the ally while Rick, T-Dog, and Shelly got their position two blocks away.

"You got some balls for a Chinaman," Daryl quipped.

"I'm Korean."

"Whatever…" Daryl scoffed.

I had an arrow already nocked on the string of my bow as I walked behind Glenn but in front of Daryl.

"Good luck, Glenn," I said patting his back before he ran out into the dead infested street. He gave me a strained smile and disappeared on the street.

There were a rustle behind us and apparently Daryl heard it too. We spun around to see a young kid in a wife beater.

"Whoa, don't shoot me!" he cried. "What do you want?"

I drew back the strong of the bow, pointing it at the kid, as Daryl brought his crossbow up also pointing at him.

"I'm looking for my brother. He's hurt real bad," Daryl said quietly so he didn't bring the biter on us. "You seen 'im?"

"Aydarne!" the kid yelled.

"Shut up!" I hissed. "You're going bring the dead down on us!"

"Answer me! Answer me!" You could hear the urgency in Daryl's voice.

"Aydarne! Aydarne! Aydarne!"

"Shut up!" I was a little louder this time because I felt like today wasn't a very good day to die…

"That's it! That's the bag, Vato!"

I spun around again to see two Latino men and Glen. Again, I drew back my bow and shot one in the ass.

He cried out and glared daggers at me.

The kid was screaming against Daryl's hold.

"Daryl! Ellie!" Glenn screamed as the one I didn't shoot grabbed him. A car drove next to the chain link fence.

"Glenn!" I tried to run after him but the guy I shot grabbed a fist full of my hair and slammed the side of my head into a dumpster.

I collapsed on the ground. Daryl was still yelling in the background at the kid.

Rick, Shelly, and T-Dog ran into the open gate closing it behind them. A red haze was taking over my vision. It started to be a constant fight to keep my eyes open.

"Oh my God, Ellie!" I heard Shelly's voice from somewhere far away.

Suddenly I was lifted off the ground and was brought into a lab type thing. Slowly, I was brought back to my senses.

"Ugh…" I groaned and sat up. I was sprawled out on a metal table while Daryl was yelling at the kid for information. God he's just an angry man isn't he?

I stood up slowly. I reached up and felt the spot above my left ear where it connected with the dumpster. The wound there was still damp with a little blood.

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went," Rick demanded leaning in close to him.

"I ain't telling you nothing…" I cringed at this kids bad grammar issues and suppressed the need to correct him.

"Jesus, man…" Shelly groaned. She exhaustedly rubbed her face with her hands.

"What the hell happened back there?" Rick's attention was now on Daryl.

"I told you, you this little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me!" Daryl answered.

"You're the one who jumped me, puto, screaming about trying to find his brother like it was my damn fault." The kid sounded innocent enough but I wanted revenge for Glenn.

"They took Glenn. Could have taken Merle too."

"Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle."

Bad idea, kid. And it was. Daryl lunged from his seat and attacked him.

"Damn it, Daryl…" I mumbled moving towards Glenn's pack.

"Back off," Rick said to Daryl when he was pulling back.

No one in the room was aware of my awakening yet so when I spoke it make everyone jump.

"Want to see what happened to the last guy who pissed me off?" I snarled finding the hand at the top of Glenn's pack. I stalked towards him with a scowl on my face. I threw the bare, stiff hand onto his lap. He freaked out completely. I squatted and took the forearm sized knife in one hand and gripped his foot in the other. "I'll start with the feet this time…" The look on his face was priceless but I didn't break character. I let go of his foot and squished his cheeks in a vice grip.

Rick squatted down next to me and spoke calmly. "The men you were with took our friend. All we want to do is talk to them, see if we can work something out."

I shared a knowing look with Rick and roughly let go of his face. Gingerly, I picked up the hand with the dew rag again and wrapped it. Then I stuck it carefully back into the pack.

"How's your head?" Shelly asked quietly.

"Fine…" I muttered massaging my temples. I had a brain splitting headache right now and pissy mood wasn't helping.

"You're sure you're up for this?" Rick asked me as we got ready to confront the group that had Glenn.

"I'm fine, Rick," I said with a small sigh. I didn't look up at him I was busy nocking an arrow and checking if I needed to reload.

He held his hands up in surrender. "Okay."

"One wrong move you get an arrow in the ass," Daryl growled to him. Then like a smartass he added, "Just so you know."

"G's going to take that arrow out of my ass and shove it up yours," Miguel replied smartly. "Just so _you _know."

I snorted and pushed the kid forward towards his people.

"G?" I asked as we walked.

"Guillermo. He's the man here." It kind of surprising how easy he gives up this information but I did show him a severed hand so I could understand his fears.

"Okay then. Let's go see Guillermo," Rick murmured as we walked forwards into the clearing.


End file.
